Alan Wake TV show is in the works

Undeterred by Marky Mark’s Max Payne movie, Remedy Entertainment are having another crack at turning one of their games into a live-action third-person watcher. This time it’s Alan Wake, their 2010 spook-o-shooter about an author who goes out his gourd, loses his wife, writes a novel then forgets about it, and fights shadowy monsters – all while on holiday in a quiet Pacific Northwest town. The TV adaptation is still in its early phases and may not become reality but hey, they’re giving it a go.

“The game was crafted to mirror the pacing of a TV show. It feels right to turn it into an actual show,” said Sam Lake, the game’s co-creator and storyman, in Wednesday’s announcement. “We want to be faithful to the soul of the game, while diving much deeper into this dark, crazy world.”

Remedy do wear their cinematic and televisual influences openly. The game had “Previously on Alan Wake” recaps between chapters and 2016’s Quantum Break even had twenty-minute episodes of live-action drama between its.

To hopefully bring the show to screens, they’ve teamed up with Tomas Harlan and Tim Carter of Contradiction Films, the mob behind the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and two Dead Rising movies. Peter Calloway, who was a producer on Under The Dome and has written episodes of Legion, is onboard as showrunning executive producer.

“The story of the original game is our starting point, the seed which will grow into the bigger story we’re exploring in the show,” Lake told Variety. “We’ll be expanding the lore of this crazy and dark universe and diving deeper into certain aspects of it than the game ever did.”

He added that this might include drawing from other Alan Wake game and story ideas of theirs which went nowhere.

Remedy and the gang being pretty vague for now, this still being largely ideas. The road from here to an actual show on actual TV (or Netflix, or Amazon, or w/e) is a long one. But Alan Wake does seem a fair fit for the current dramatic climate of crime mystery and spooky things in woods.

I don’t remember Alan Wake that well. As a shootybanger it’s, like, fine? I liked all the trees? The plot merged wonkily enough with the game context that I forgot what was up while distracted by fighting ghosties and hunting for Energizer batteries? I didn’t like it enough to play to the end, so maybe I’ll finally understand while slumped on the sofa in front of Netflix.

“It has a setting and a tone that I really do thrill to, which makes me all the more downcast that its memorable shell doesn’t house a more satisfying game,” our Alec said in his Alan Wake review and let’s take that as validating my views.